Huffpost:The Trump administration sought to make an example of 11 migrants, whom officials say were part of a large refugee caravan, by making a public affair of hauling them into criminal courts rather than putting them through the civil deportation system.

But President Donald Trump’s caravan prosecutions are already hitting roadblocks. Lawyers are challenging most of the normally open-and-shut misdemeanor immigration prosecutions and using the president’s tweets and public statements about Central Americans to do it.

The severity of the cases hardly matches the outsized pronouncements from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Prosecutors have offered to release most of the 11 migrants based on time served if they agree to plead guilty. Then they would then take their claims to immigration court, having their currently clean criminal records stained with a conviction.

In an unusual step, though, at least six of the 11 alleged caravan members are seeking to have their cases dismissed entirely, contending the Trump administration selectively prosecuted them based on their national origin as it sought to deter Central American asylum seekers. Some secured reduced bonds, which may allow them to fight their cases without being jailed.